[NFBV-Blind-Parents] Comments Welcomed - Potential Path Forward with Your Help

[Jessica Reed]

Catherine and all, my sincerest apologies for my hasty response. April has been quite the world wind, and the last few days with myself and two sick kids are no exception. 🤒. Reading that last message I wrote it really sounded like I bit off Catherine‘s head, which was far from my intention! I think I’m just running on empty, as parents do.  This also explains how April just sort of came and went with no call.  I am now looking at the second week in May to hold a call. I realize this falls from our usual pattern of the last week in May, but since we did not have any call in April I think it’s better to meet sooner than later.  There is also a and FB board meeting in Richmond on the 17th, which I am looking to attend.  Gauging interest, which I will also do on the call, who else will be there? Would anyone care to have a small parenting social event either prior or after the meeting? Thoughts on all? Again, so sorry for the loss in momentum! Love love love the ideas and enthusiasm!

Best regards,
Jessica Reed

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 23, 2019, at 3:47 PM, Kathryn Webster, National Student President <nabs.president at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Apologies on the misunderstanding. You asked that I forward the email I sent you individually out to the list, so I subscribed. So sorry!!!!
> 
> Kathryn Webster
> President, National Association of Blind Students
> (203) 273-8463
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Apr 23, 2019, at 3:37 PM, Jessica Reed <jessicac.kostiw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Easy Cal girl. I have a plan, which I can talk to you about. We need to do my next steps before we implement any new changes that you were proposing. Besides, not everyone on that car is linked in this email.
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Apr 23, 2019, at 11:58 AM, Kathryn C. Webster | National Student President <nabs.president at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Good morning!
>>>  
>>> I hope each of you are having a good week thus far. I wanted to spark up some conversation between meetings, so we are consistently generating ideas rather than just on the calls. Jessica shouldn’t have to drive this forward, so I encourage all of us to take an active role in brainstorming strategies and potential opportunities as we aim to push this initiative forward.
>>>  
>>> So, let’s think through a universal position first. As many of you know, there is moderate resistance from the Virginia Family Law Coalition. Ultimately, I think we should focus on blind parents only. Yes, I understand that excludes other disabilities, thus cutting out potential partnerships with civil rights groups, but we will have less of an uphill battle. We have expertise in training for solely blind people and our lack of understanding for rehab-driven training for other disabilities will harm us more than help.
>>>  
>>> Based on my conversations with Derek, we are at a standstill with the head of the Family Law Coalition. While the ABA resolved the need for states not to fight these initiatives, it does not specify guiding the bills forward. So, the Family Law Coalition can say nothing or fight back diplomatically; and they seem to be going with the latter.
>>>  
>>> As for next steps, I think we need to:
>>> 1.           Link up with Scott LaBarre to see how he thinks we can approach Family Law Coalition in Virginia and if we can lean on the Virginia Bar Association. We can only do that if we have connections to lean on. Maybe he can guide us in some direction?
>>> 2.           Get some strategy underway. This group should put together potential partnerships, stakeholder groups, any ties to anything that makes sense in regard to backing our efforts. If we get a list, we can easily pulse check our membership to bring in those relationships, but we need a starting point so we are not approaching conversations with no true ‘ask’. Who is willing to help with this?
>>> 3.           Analyze other state parental rights bills to see how we want to frame our own. I personally like Georgia’s and Illinois’, but they even vary. We should dive deeper and refine the language to get a draft bill underway. Once we have that, we are all talking the same language.
>>>  
>>> Thoughts?
>>>  
>>> Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions,
>>> Kathryn Webster